The Door

The Door

Mabel hated Simon. He was the one person—if you could call him a person—standing in her way. She needed to move on. She needed to go through the door. But Simon, with his stupid flaming fire eyes and wings, forbade her. Who did he think he was? He was a servant. He was a guard. He wasn’t anyone special. She could punch him in the nose and run passed him before he even realized what happened.

Well, Mabel, tried that three times before giving up. Who knew the horned bastard was so strong? The name Simon didn’t evoke powerful in her mind. She imagined a chipmunk wearing glasses. That was her mistake. Simon didn’t even give her the courtesy of flinching.

Simon was a dick. And he stood in her way.

“I need to go through, Simon, please move,” Mabel said in the sweetest voice she could muster up and for her it wasn’t that sweet. She gritted her teeth and smiled. She was certain she looked like a monster trying to smile at its prey.

“Not happening, Mabel,” Simon said.

“But I said please.” Mabel considered twirling a piece of her hair around her finger or winking or whatever the human girls did to get what they wanted. She didn’t understand the magic, but admired it. She lacked magic of any kind unless you considered soul zapping magic, which she did not. It was a party trick.

“Finally, you’ve learned some manners,” Simon said. “But you’re not going through this door.” Simon rolled his shoulders back just a fraction, but it was enough for Mabel to take a step back. He was frighteningly beautiful for a demon or an angel or whatever he was.

He was a dick.

Mabel disliked being wingless. Everyone had wings. Simon’s wings were glorious and blood-red. All Mabel had were two scars on her shoulder blades where her wings should have been. She wondered what color her wings would have been if she had been allowed to keep them. Mabel liked to think they would have been a black almost midnight blue color. It didn’t matter. Wings or no wings, Mabel couldn’t go through the door without Simon’s permission and he would never give it to her.

Dick.

“Simon, I need to know. Please. Just a peek,” she asked. Begging was beneath her, but at this point she would try anything. She needed to know what was through the door. She needed to see what the winged ones saw. Mabel needed to belong just once before it was over.

Simon sighed. He relaxed his body just a little. The fire in his eyes burned softer. “There’s nothing behind the door, Mabel. It’s a trick. It’s a lie. Just an exit into nothing,”

“You’re telling me it’s an exit? What in the hell does that even mean? There is no exit. We don’t exit, Simon. We don’t walk through a door to nothing. Why would it need a guard? Why would it be a big secret? Simon, you’re a liar,” Mabel said, clutching her hands into fists. She wanted to punch him in the face again even with the knowledge she couldn’t hurt him.

“It’s the way out of here, Mabel. There is more to the universe than us. If you went through the door, you wouldn’t be able to come back. You’d be gone to this world forever,” Simon explained, but Mabel stopped listening.

There was more to the universe than us? How could that be? This was the only world Mabel knew. The magical winged creatures and the horned beasts of hell or heaven or wherever. That was real. Mabel’s heart ached. More than ever she needed to go through the door. She needed to see for herself if Simon spoke the truth.

Mabel whispered, “I don’t belong here, Simon.”

“This is your home.”

“No, it isn’t. If there is more out there, Simon, I want to see it. I want to know it,” Mabel said. She hadn’t realized until that moment how much she meant it. She would go through the door and she would see everything.

“I can’t let you. I shouldn’t have told you. Go away, Mabel. I’m done,” Simon said. The fire returned to his eyes, he stood taller and spread out his wings blocking the door completely.

Mabel wasn’t about to let Simon stop her. She could bring fire to her eyes, maybe not quite like Simon or the others, but there was a fire inside her stronger than all the angels and demons had combined. She was going through the door.